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Oration of Cassius Marcellus Clay 



BEFORE 



THE MAUMEE VALLEY HISTORICAL AND MONUMENTAL 
ASSOCIATION, OF TOLEDO, OHIO, 



AT 



Put-In-Bay Island, Lake Erie, on the loth of September, 1891 



THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE CAPTURE OF THE BRITISH 
FLEET BY OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 



ORATION 

OF 

/ 
CASSIUS MARCELLUS CLAY 

BEFORE 

THE MAUMEE VALLEY HISTORICAL AND 
MONUMENTAL ASSOCIATION, 

OF TOLEDO, OHIO, 

At Put-In-Bay Island, Lake Erie, on the loth of 
\ September, 1 89 1 . 



\^ 



THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE CAPTURE OF 
THE BRITISH FLEET BY OLIVER 



HAZARD PERRY. ^^^ 



PHILADELPHIA : 

PRINTED BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY. 

1891. 

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ORATION 

OF 

CASSIUS MARCELLUS CLAY 



Mr. President, Ladies, and Gentlemen: 

The birth, maturity, and death of nations are the 
basis of history, and Pope well says, " The noblest 
study of mankind is man." The Almighty God has 
given to man — the head of creation — no higher 
quality than courage, — held in common with the 
beasts that, by physical impulse, attack and defend 
to the death, — but in addition thereto that moral 
courage which is not shared by the lower animals, 
which is ready to meet death in aid of good to man- 
kind. Not those who have died to destroy but 
to save nations are to be honored ; and yet more 
worthy of immortality is he who not only saves 
a nation's life, but its liberties. There is no doubt 
evolution in nature is eternal advance to a higher 
plane of perfection. As the dying vegetation fer- 
tilizes the soil for a superior growth, so the death of 
nations gives the material for higher civilization. 
Thus the liberties of nations rise in new vestments 
of glory from age to age. In 1776 England was 
the most advanced of all the ages in constitutional 



4 ORATION OF 

liberty, but when we went to war " for no taxation 
without representation," and created a new nation, 
we reached a higher plane in the advance of civiliza- 
tion. 

Thomas Jefferson was more than the author of 
our Declaration of Independence in 1776 ; he more 
than any American laid down the basis of our popular 
liberty. On this day, standing on ground conse- 
crated by him to freedom from chattel slavery for- 
ever, his name should be first mentioned among our 
moral heroes. The grand result of an independent 
nation was not only equal taxation, but equality 
of property and religion by the abolition of primo- 
geniture and the church-and-state theory of Great 
Britain, which principles have for the first time 
in history been practically made the bed-rock by 
Kentucky on August 3, 1891, of her new constitution, 
by a majority of 139,415. 

England, with Lord Chatham (William Pitt) and 
a few of her greatest and noblest intellects in favor 
of our independence, made peace on December 27, 
1783. But she submitted with ill grace to fate. 
She claimed the right of inalienable allegiance, and 
stopped our vessels on the high seas, and took her 
once subjects, though now naturalized citizens of the 
United States, against our protest. They took not 
only once British subjects, but native-born Ameri- 
cans, and held them in naval service or in bonds and 
imprisonment. The war continuing between France 
and herself, she declared all the French coast on the 
Atlantic to be in a state of blockade, which, being 
unable to enforce, was contrary to the laws of na- 
tions. Napoleon retaliated, and declared November 
3, 1806 — known as the Berlin decree — all England 



CASSIUS MARCELLVS CLAY. 5 

and the British Islands blockaded. Finally England 
decreed that all vessels trading with France should 
touch the English coast and get a permit, or be 
confiscated if caught on the seas. These intolerable 
usurpations at length drove the United States, under 
the leadership of Henry Clay, to declare war with 
England, June 12, 1812, — James Madison being 
President. From the time Daniel Boone entered 
Kentucky with Findley, in 1769, there was unceas- 
ing war with the Indians, whose friendship England 
cultivated from their Canadian possessions. Time 
allows only mention of incidents most nearlj- con- 
nected with our celebration, — omitting the great 
names of Anthony Wayne, Daniel Boone, George 
Eogers Clarke, and Lewis Clarke. 

William Henry Harrison was appointed Governor 
of the Northwestern Territory, including Indiana, 
Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, — having done 
much civil and military service well known to his- 
tory. On the 5th of jSTovember, 1811, Governor 
Harrison marched with some regulars and militia — 
mostly Kentuckians, 800 strong — upon the Prophet's 
town (the brother of Tecumseh), on the Tippecanoe 
Eiver, in Indiana, where he was intrenched. The 
Indians were defeated and dispersed, their leader, the 
Prophet, being killed. This overawed the Indians, 
who were in almost entire possession of the whole 
Territory, but war with England being imminent, 
they refused a peace. William Hull, a native of 
Connecticut, and a distinguished soldier of the 
revolution, was made, by Jefferson, Governor of 
Michigan in 1805. He remained in oflSce till 1812, 
when he was made brigadier-general and commander 
of the Northwestern Army, by President James 



6 ORATION OF 

Madison. Marching with his army — with orders to 
conquer Western Canada — to Detroit, through the 
wilderness, he there heard of the fall of Michili- 
mackinac, on Lake Huron, — which set loose all 
the Indians in the Northwestern Territory upon 
him. He attempted a retreat through Canada, 
but, being opposed, he recrossed into Michigan, 
and surrendered his whole army, Detroit, and the 
Northwestern Territory to General Brock, of the 
English army. This filled the whole AYest with 
indignation, and he was everywhere declared a 
traitor to his country. I remember when I was a 
child hearing one of our colored slaves — Scott — sing- 
ing a doggerel, of which I can only recall a few 
words : 

" We've left our plantations, 
Our friends and relations, 
And flew to the war as the friend of the brave ; 
But Hull, you old traitor, 
You out-cast of nature. 
Your conscience condemns you 
As long as you live." 

I dwell upon this event to say that Hull was no 
doubt a sincere patriot, and did his best for his men 
and his countr}^, and surrendered only when contest 
was death. 

This same Scott Clay, when I lay ill in 1845, amid 
the murderous threats of my enemies, the opponents 
of liberation, appeared in my bedroom, having come 
twenty miles to Lexington, Ky., on foot, from my 
home at White Hall, and, on being questioned, said, 
" I come to defend 3"0u." 

" But," said I, " Scott, you are but one man, and 
thousands to-day will surround us." 



CASSIUS MARCELLVS CLAY. 7 

" Then," said he, " I will die in that door before 
they shall kill you." 

On the declaration of war, June 12, 1812, the mili- 
tary spirit was high in Kentucky. Seven thousand 
volunteers offered themselves to the government, 
and 1500 were under General Hopkins, on the march 
to Detroit through the wilderness, when they heard 
of the surrender of Detroit. They at once returned 
home, or joined General Harrison, against the protest 
of General Hopkins. 

It would have been well if IS'apoleon, who was 
about this time marching upon Moscow, had followed 
the example of these Kentuckians, and after his real 
defeat at Borodino had returned to France. 

On the Ist day of January, 1813, the Northwest 
Army, under Brigadier-General Harrison, rested, 
with the left wing, commanded by General Win- 
chester at Fort Defiance, on the Maumee Eiver, and 
the right wing under the commander-in-chief at 
Upper Sandusky. Detroit being the objective point 
of attack, Winchester was ordered to march with his 
brigade of Kentuckians and regulars, commanded on 
the left by Colonel Lewis, to reach the rapids and 
await Harrison's arrival. But Winchester, on the 
14th, hearing of the weak garrison of Frenchtown, 
on the river Eaisin, in Canada, detached Colonel 
Lewis to capture it, which was done on the 18th of 
January, 1813. 

Winchester, hearing of the capture, marched to 
the support of Lewis, refused to enter his pickets, 
and camped his regiment on the plains outside, be- 
cause he would not take post on the left of Lewis, 
— military etiquette ordering, — and he slept at a 
farm-house a mile distant from Colonel Wells's regi- 



8 ORATION OF 

mcnt. A British force, under General Proctor, 
marched with regulars and Indians in the night of 
the 21st, assaulted Lewis's fort, and were repulsed 
with great slaughter. They then turned on Wells's 
regiment and cut it to pieces, taking many prisoners, 
among them Colonel Wells himself Tbe whole Brit- 
ish force with six field-pieces was turned upon Lewis, 
who surrendered under promise of the protection of 
civilized warfare. The genei-als, colonels, and other 
officers and men were saved as stipulated, but all the 
wounded were massacred in Frenchtown. There was 
no guard left, and two houses full of the wounded 
were burned. 

Since the declaration of war, defeat on all the 
scenes which belong to this address followed our 
armies. General Harrison, after the battle of 
Frenchtown, was comi^elled to abandon the recap- 
ture of Detroit, and to stand on the defensive. On 
the south bank of the Maumee Eiver he built a 
strong fort of logs set on end, with salient block- 
houses at the angles, covering seven acres of land. 
It was proof against musket and rifle-balls and 
light artillery, but was not secure against heavy 
guns. 

Here he awaited relnfoi'cements, called for throuirh 
the authority of the general government. This fort 
was named Meigs, in honor of the then Governor 
of Ohio. Governor Isaac Shelby, the hero of King's 
Mountain in the Eevolutionary War, was then filling 
his second term of office as Governor of Kentucky, 
succeeding General Charles Scott, another veteran 
and Indian fighter. 

M}^ father. Green Clay, was born in Powhattan 
Count}', Virginia, August l-l, 1757; migrated into 



CASSIUS MARCELLUS CLAY. 9 

Kentucky about the year 1776 ; fought the British 
and their allies, the Indians, during the Eevolution- 
ary War till the peace in 1783 ; was a delegate of the 
District of Kentucky before it was made a State, in 
the Virginia General Assembly; was a member from 
Kentucky of the convention of 1788, and voted for 
the Federal Constitution of 1789 ("D. Vir. Con. 1788," 
volumes ii.), and was a member of the convention of 
1799 (" Collins's Kentucky," 1847, and "New Amer- 
ican Encyclopasdia," p. 307, vol. v.) ; was then major- 
general and commander, next to the G-overnor, of the 
Kentucky militia at the declaration of war in 1812 ; 
was made brigadier-general by commission anew, and 
put in command of the four regiments of volun- 
teers, consisting of 3000 men, under the command 
of Colonels Dudley, Boswell, Cox, and Caldwell. 

On the 12th of April, 1813, the advanced guard 
reached Fort Meigs; and on the 25th the British 
flotilla, having on board the battering cannon, were 
at the mouth of the Maumee Eiver, two miles below, 
where the gun-boats landed, and finally placed their 
artillery on land opposite the Americans, and had bat- 
teries thrown up on both sides of the fort, — on the 
right and left banks of the Maumee Eiver. A horde 
of Indians, commanded by Tecumseh, attended the 
British as allies, in all 3000 strong. On the first 
of May a heavy fire was opened by the British, 
and feebly returned by Harrison, mostly from balls 
picked up from the guns of the enemy. 

On the 4th of May General Clay reached Fort De- 
fiance, on the Maumee Eiver, with the remainder 
of the brigade, 2000 men, 1000 having been sent 
forward before the investment by the British and 
Indians. General Harrison left orders at Defiance for 



10 ORATION OF 

General Clay to unload his boats on his arrival there, 
and, making forced marches, to cut his way through 
the enemy into Fort Meigs. But my father, like 
every true soldier, while observing the main pur- 
pose of the order to the letter, being an old Indian 
fighter, unloaded his boats, put up additional timbers 
on the gunwales of the flat-boats, and descended 
the river, without the loss of a man. In the mean 
time he sent orders by Major D. Trimble, with five 
men, to inform General Harrison of his movements. 
The gallant major in the late afternoon, launching 
his canoe, reached Fort Meigs before daylight, and 
delivered his orders. General Harrison, with the rapid 
resolution of military genius, despatched by Cai^tain 
Hamilton an order to Clay (I quote from Collins), 
" to land 800 men upon the northern shore, opposite 
the fort, to carry the British batteries there placed ; 
to spike the cannon and destroy the carriages, after 
which they were immediately to regain their boats 
and cross over to the fort." Hamilton, ascending the 
river in a canoe, delivered the orders to Clay. But 
he, with that sagacity which distinguished his life, 
sent Hamilton to deliver Harrison's order to Colonel 
"VYilliam Dudley himself Dudley captured the bat- 
teries and filled his orders literally, — all but the im- 
portant one. Led off by the artifices of Indian 
warfare, he was killed with all his force, save about 
150 men. Clay landed his 1200 men. In a letter 
dated at Fort Meigs, July 8, 1813, to Micajah Harri- 
son, of Kentuckj^ (" Life of Cassius Marcellus Clay," 
vol. i. p. 44), he writes : 

" On the day of the action. Major David Trimble 
accompanied me to cover the retreat of the rem- 
nant of Colonel Dudley's regiment, and behaved with 



CASSIVS MARC ELL US CLAY. H 

great coolness and gallantly. . . . Here the Kon- 
tuckians drove Tecumseh where the hottest battle 
was fought, and then he crossed the river, and with 
their whole force overthrew Colonel Dudley." 

Acting under General Harrison's orders, on May 
5, 1813, Avith 1200 men. Green Clay, commanding 
the left wing, defeated the immortal Tecumseh and 
the British forces, 3000 men, in open daylight, drove 
them over the river, and saved 150 Kentucky soldiers, 
the remnant of his brigade, from death. This was 
the first real victory, within the lines of this address, 
since the declaration of war, January 12, 1812. 

When war was declared. Green Clay was major- 
general of the Kentucky militia. Then every man 
was bound to perform military service. His rightful 
rank was major-general, but he was reduced to a 
brigadier-general, and so commissioned by Governor 
Shelby. 

William Henry Harrison was made a brigadier- 
general by Governor Charles Scott, April 25, 1812, 
which gave him the right of command, when they 
met, over my father. This was all right. General 
Harrison was a trained soldier, and the commander- 
in-chief over the Indiana Territory, and was made 
brigadier September 17, 1812, and afterwards majoi*- 
general by the Federal government. Thus he would 
have ranked General Clay by seniority. Now our 
slanderers say this was done in depreciation of 
General Clay. If it was done in a patriotic spirit, 
what shall be said of those ignoble calumniators? If 
it was done in personal enmity to Clay, how he 
silenced his detractors by submitting to wrong with 
such patriotic self-sacrifice ! No jealousy at least 
existed between General Harrison and himself He 



12 ORATION OF 

was commcuded by the fact that be was made, after 
the siege of Fort Meigs was raised, commander-in- 
chief. There were four regiments of regular troops, 
two companies of engineers and artillery, two 
regiments of Ohio militia, the Pittsburg and Peters- 
burg volunteers, a corps of riflemen and cavalry, and 
Clay's brigade of Kentucky militia. So soon as the 
siege was abandoned, G-eneral Harrison moved on 
north with a view of invading Canada, as soon as 
his fleet was ready for action. 

In the mean time, Generals Proctor and Tecumseh 
returned to the attack on Fort Meigs with an 
increased force, and continued it till about July, 
1813. But General Clay so obstinately resisted that 
the siege was finally raised once more. In this last 
attack 200 men and ofiicers were killed and wounded, 
and about six wagon-loads of balls and unexploded 
shells were picked up and utilized by the Americans. 
(Clay's letter to Micajah Harrison, July 8, 1813.) In 
their retreat the enemy attempted to capture by 
storm an out-post, Fort Stevenson, with one hun- 
dred and fifty Kentuckians, commanded by Cap- 
tain George Croghan, also a Kentuckian. The fort 
was a simple stockade without salient angles, or 
block-houses on the corners, and being unable to 
resist cannon, he was ordered to abandon the post 
and retreat into Fort Meigs ; but being too late, he 
stood his ground and defended himself most gallantly 
against the enemy. The Indians did not like sieges. 
Neither did they like Kentuckians! He was bre- 
vetted at once lieutenant-colonel, and he distinguished 
himself in after-years. On Harrison's return to Fort 
Meigs, he, by special order, thanked General Clay for 
his gallant defence, and his brigade, having served 



CASSIUS MARCELLUS CLAY. 13 

their time of enlistment, returned home. But my 
father, by G-eneral Harrison's invitation, attended the 
army to Detroit, and thence returned to his home 
in Kentucky. 

The Federal government at last awakened to the 
absolute necessity of commanding the lakes before 
making further advance in the conquest of Canada. 
Oliver Hazard Perry was born in Newport, E.I., 
January-, 1785, and died at the Island of Trinidad, 
August 23, 1819. In 1813 he was a lieutenant in 
the United States navy, commanding a division of 
gun-boats off his native coast. Fired by patriotic 
ambition, he asked to be transferred to the command 
of Commodore Isaac Chauncey, the chief naval 
officer of all the lakes, being then on Lake Ontario. 
Chauncey deputed Lieutenant Perry, already famous 
in naval warfare, to build on Lake Erie a navy out of 
green timber equal to the capture of the British 
squadron then dominating those waters. This Perry 
set about with great enthusiasm and skill, aided by 
the experts from the commodore's fleet. Absent for 
a time to assist his chief in the capture of Fort 
George, on Lake Ontario, he returned to his work. 
Taking advantage of Barclay's temporary absence 
from obsei'ving him at Erie, Pa., he lifted the larger 
vessels on rafts of logs over the shallows and off 
Put-In-Bay was prepared for the great action of 
September 10, 1813. Commodore Barclay had six 
boats and 63 guns and 502 officers and men. Perry 
had nine vessels with 54 guns and 490 officers and 
men. The limits of this occasion will not allow me 
to go into this, one of the most glorious battles in 
the world's history. It is enough that Perry won 
the battle and captured all the British ships and their 



14 ORATION OF 

crews. This was the fall of Troy and our task is 
finished. The capture of the foe gave us the com- 
mand of the lakes, and virtually closed the war in 
the Northwest. Detroit and Maiden were evacuated 
at once, and our rule of the Northwest Territory 
restored. The Kentucky troops, released from the 
forts, were anxious to join Perry, but only 150 by 
lot were taken, who served on the fleet as mariners, 
and after fighting the battle of the Thames, October 
5, 1813, returned home. My father accompanied 
Genei'al Harrison to the seat of the Lake war, was on 
the captured fleet, and embarked for Detroit, which 
was already evacuated, and was placed by Harrison 
under General McArthur, and then he followed his 
men to his Kentuckv home. The battle of the 
Thames excited but little interest after the im- 
mortal victory of SejDtember 10, as the sun obscures 
all minor lights. But here Tecumseh made his last 
stand, and by a dismounted squad of horsemen, led 
by Colonel Eichard M. Johnson, afterwards elected 
Vice-President of the United States, fell dead on the 
field of battle. The contest about the birthplace of 
Homer was never more fiercely waged than about 
" Who killed Tecumseh?" 

On the 30th day of December, 1843, there was a 
great meeting of the friends of slave-holding Texas 
annexation, at the White Sulphur Springs, in Scott 
County, Ky., Johnson's home, at which he was the 
principal speaker. I off'ered opposing resolutions, and 
followed him in a speech ("Life of C. M. Clay," 1 vol., 
by Horace Greeley, Harper Bros., New York, 1848). 
The gallant colonel, wearing a red waistcoat after 
the fashion of the Jeff'ersonians of earlier days, was 
at first startled by the question (from some opponent, 



CASSIUS MARCELLUS CLAY. 15 

probably) in the audience, "Who killed Tecumseh?" 
but, recovering, looked steadily at his inquisitor and 
replied, " I do not say I killed Tecumseh, but if I 
did not kill him, say, who did kill him ?" This sen- 
sible rejoinder silenced the batteries of his opponent, 
as no one could say who did kill him. The good and 
brave soldier told but the truth, for had he said, " I 
killed him," that would have settled the question 
forever. He had killed all the Indians about him 
and fell badly wounded. Neither he nor any one 
else recognized the great warrior, till some Indians, 
after the battle, pointed him out to the Americans. 
But his followers knew of his death, and holding out 
after the British left in flight the field, they fled when 
their leader was no more. 

Some of my opponents badgering me about the 
matter, I said it did not matter who killed Tecumseh, 
as Green Clay had whipped him twice before under 
the command of William Henry Hax'rison. Te- 
cumseh was the most distinguished man of all the 
tribes of Indians on the North American continent. 
He had great intelligence as well as bravery and 
humanity. At Dudley's defeat, when the prisoners 
were being massacred in Proctor's presence, or by 
his complicity, Tecumseh rushed in and with great 
indignation stopped the slaughter. Proctor knew 
very well what his fate would be if ever he was 
caught by the Kentuckians, and he took care to 
secure himself by cowardly retreats. As soon as 
Perry's victory secured the possibility of intercept- 
ing his escape, he abandoned Detroit and Maiden, 
and the general opinion is that the gallant Te- 
cumseh forced him to make a stand at the Thames, 
where he showed not only immortal courage, but 



16 ORATION OF 

great genius in the selection of the field of battle. 
So every lover of home and humanity must shed a 
tear over the great sj^irit which gave all for the de- 
fence of his hearthstone and his country. . . . And 
here the scene changes South to New Orleans. 

The British, despairing of defence in the North, 
on the overthrow of Napoleon, emptied their victo- 
rious soldiers, under the command of Sir Edward 
Pakenham, below New Orleans, on the left bank of 
the Mississippi, two miles from the city. 

The great battle of the war, after the varying 
results in the East, was fought on the 8th of January, 
1815, after the peace which was made December 24, 
1814, between Great Britain and America, but was 
unknown to Jackson till after his victory. The Ken- 
tuckians, relieved from the Northern service, eagerly 
flocked to Jackson's standard, at New Orleans, La. 

Here once more yet ring in my ears the old 
chants in commemoration of this, the most splendid 
victory in our annals, on land, — 

He led us down to Cypress swamp, 

The land was low and murky ; 
There stood John Bull in martial pomp, 

But here stood old Kentucky. 

Chorus— Old Kentucky,— the hunters of Kentucky I 

They'd have our gals and cotton bags in spite of 
Old Kentucky. 

Thus closed the war with the star-spangled ban- 
ner flaming with immortal light ! AYe had proved 
our soldiers the foremost of nations in prowess on 
land and sea. 

Nothing was said in the treaty of peace about 
"free trade or sailors' rights," but they were made 



CASSIUS MARCELLUS CLAY. 17 

secure all the same. No longer our seamen can be 
seized on the high seas, and citizens once standing 
under the stars and strijjes are safe from enforced 
allegiance to the rulers of their native lands. Thus 
is progress lifted to a higher plane by this war, 
and the evolution of liberty and civilization are once 
more triumphant. 

The peace of Ghent, December 24, 1814, was 
represented in part by John Quincy Adams, on the 
Federal side, and the Eepublicans by Henry Clay, 
the one from the North, the other from the South. 
The great battles were fought at Lake Erie by 
Perrj^, an Eastern and Northern man, and by 
Andrew Jackson, in the South and VYest. They 
were both born in the East, but mostly supported 
by Western soldiers. These, then, are eminently 
national triumphs, and should be commemorated by 
all parties and all sections of our common country. 

While the most lasting monuments are not built 
of marble or bronze, these last are auxiliary to the 
heart-felt gratitude of all posterity. Let, then, these 
sacred grounds be set apart for the education of our 
children, as an everlasting stimulation to patriotic 
deeds. First inscribed on this temple of fame, let 
the name of God be conspicuously eminent ; then 
the foremost of our heroes by land and sea moulded 
in bronze be set on granite bases ; then last, but not 
least, the words of Lincoln be engraved, which will 
endure longer than the bronze or the granite : " A 
government of the people, by the people, and for 
the people." 



18 ORATION OF 



NOTES, 



My authority for the statements made by me are 
from the living witnesses Green Clay, John Speed 
Smith, of Harrison's staff, and others. 



. . . There is, in the Library of the Maumee 
Historical and Monumental Association, a written 
oi'der-book by Captain Daniel Cushings, Heavy 
Artillery, U.S.A., April 1, 1813. The British bat- 
tery on the north side of the Maumee had (4) four 
32-pounders and a mortar-battery of (2) two 
guns. The British battery on the south side was 
taken on the 5th by the Americans. The United 
States had five batteries in the fort, — number of guns 
not given. ... In general order, May 9, 1813, 
General Harrison writes: "The general gives his 
thanks to Brigadier-General Clay for the prompti- 
tude with which the detachment of his brigade was 
landed, and the assistance given by him for form- 
ing them for the attack on the left." Signed John 
O'Fallon, assistant acting adjutant-general. 



... It would then, from these data, appear that 
Clay's brigade was the whole of the left wing, as 
Harrison had only 2250 men at the time. It is 
not probable that less than a thousand were left to 
man the fort and 1200 to form the right wing. So 
General Clay fought that battle with Tecumseh, and 
drove him over the river unaided by the right wing 
engaged in the capture of the South battery. 



CASSIUS MARCELLUS CLAY. I9 

. . . My father's motive for sending Harrison's 
order to Colonel Dudley was obvious. The Ken- 
tuckians had been used to fight without regular 
organizations. Their leaders were generally nomi- 
nated for the occasion, and had but little authority 
over their associates. Green Clay's knowledge of 
these facts either led him to doubt the propriety of 
such order to any but regulars, or he was guarding 
against his enemies in the rear. 



. . . Proctor knew well that the Kentuckians 
would not fail to avenge his crimes against civiliza- 
tion. He could easily have battered down Fort 
Stevenson, for he had (2) two 32-pounders and 
other guns, but, failing in the assault, he feared 
his communications with Canada miffht be cut 
off, himself taken and killed ! So he not only 
abandoned Detroit and Maiden, but at the battle 
of the Thames he fled before the Indians were 
routed. He was pursued with such determination 
by the Kentuckians that his personal camp baggage 
was captured in the flight. 



. . . Ex-President E. B. Hayes presided, and J. 
K. Hamilton, mayor of Toledo, was secretary of the 
celebration. 



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